A sign on the lawn of a Bleeker Street home as residents go to the polls to vote on a proposal to dissolve the village of Greenwich Tuesday, June 24, 2014, in Greenwich, NY. If passed, the village would merge with the towns of Greenwich and Easton. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Kathleen Horton signs in with election inspector Clifford Oliver Mealy, left, to vote on a proposal to dissolve the village of Greenwich Tuesday, June 24, 2014, at the Greenwich Village Community Center in Greenwich, NY. If passed, the village would merge with the towns of Greenwich and Easton. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Residents go to the polls to vote on a proposal to dissolve the village of Greenwich Tuesday, June 24, 2014, at the Greenwich Village Community Center in Greenwich, NY. If passed, the village would merge with the towns of Greenwich and Easton. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Residents of this 205-year-old village defeated a proposal Tuesday to dissolve the village and merge with the town of the same name and the town of Easton.

The vote ended 281-203 against dissolution.

"I think people have a real love for the community and the village and don't want that to go away," Village Mayor David Doonan said. "I think people saw the savings would come directly from the elimination of services."

Doonan said the village now will try to undertake a shared-services study with the towns of Greenwich and Easton.

The dissolution idea came up earlier this year when local businessman Peter Gregg, owner of the Greenwich Journal and Salem Press, began circulating a petition to eliminate the village government to reduce the property tax burden on residents. Gregg, citing a study by Kingston-based Rondout Consulting, said taxes for village residents would go down by 49 percent. He could not be reached for comment after Tuesday's vote.

Doonan said that number was a rough estimate and dissolution would mean loss of services. Employees of the village justice court and police department, which already shares services with Cambridge, would also be out of a job if dissolution occurred.

In recent weeks, the battle lines have been drawn and opponents made their voices heard.

A coalition of opponents including some village officials placed an extensive rundown of the consequences of dissolution on the village's website.

The village dissolution movement in recent years in the Capital Region has not been successful. Measures have failed in the Saratoga County villages of Victory, Corinth and Schuylerville; and the villages of Lake George in Warren County and Middleburgh in Schoharie County.

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Many villages have opted to merge some of their services with the towns rather than seek elimination.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pushed measures to strip away redundant layers of local government to reduce taxes but of the 500 villages in the state, only five have been dissolved since 2009, according the to the Department of State.